Manchester Develops A Space Programme:

Ian Cunningham sends men into space from a park

HEY folks we are the city of achievement when we put our minds to it. We think and the world reacts. Confidential made a list of all the amazing firsts of the city some time ago. This is it. Read and smile.

Be proud of our city of 25 Nobel prize winners - more than all the other nations of the world except for the USA, UK (the rest of it), Germany, France, Russia and Sweden.

Ian Cunningham and his mate have sent a balloon into space. It's a manned space flight as well from that well known launch pad of a municipal park.

But now we've moved on. Manchester has a space programme.

Ian Cunningham and his mate, Dr Jonathan Chippindall, have sent a balloon into space. It's a manned space flight as well from that well known launch pad of park in Mold, Wales.

This location was chosen because it was well away from Manchester Airport's flight path - shame really as it would have proved a memorable moment for any drunken Brits coming back from Spain and looking out of the window to see this thing scooting past.

The men that went to space in this Mancunian programme are plastic, but does that really matter you pedants?

And they are Danish spacemen not lads from Salford either. But these boys can't help their LEGO origins.

So why send these mini-explorers into the cold beyond?

Cunningham says: "It’s two fold – partly because we wanted to prove it’s possible to do something interesting with just off-the-shelf equipment and also to try and inspire others in the area to do interesting scientific and technical things.

"Manchester has a fantastic history for its science and engineering projects – so it would be great to encourage people to get a little more involved in science related stuff."

The picture and the videos are all real by the way and this is not a joke.

Ian and his mate have put human (shapes) into space from this city region. The main photo above is particularly lovely.